


Chapter 7 (Part 2)

by Adge



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:40:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21636769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adge/pseuds/Adge
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	Chapter 7 (Part 2)

**Chapter 7 (Part 2)**

Their only holt Onni’s mage-realm  
Where Lalli scout his lair downsets  
Safe till waking. Settled, Onni  
Frains his cousin if friends he's found;  
Lalli replies, lone-scout utters,  
Wonders aloud if one he knows  
Answering as friend. Emil callow  
In the dripping ways and wemmed passages  
Of the weed-cloaked school, a scamper hears  
Past the ginnel's end. Garred by Sigrun,  
War-shame fearing, he wends forward,  
Where steps downwards in a dank stavel  
Reveal Emil to a vile hound-beast,  
Its life corrupted by rash-doom curse.  
The dog-shaped lich limps to the stair end  
As mild Emil mercy prepares,  
Sights his weapon at the warg's brainpan;  
His gun targets at the ghastly skull.  
But the rash-corrupted runs suddenly  
And the shot-burst fails, the form thirling  
But no lifestead by lead is pierced.  
The scotched hound-beast halts and crouches  
Its chine opens from chaps to tail,  
Spider-limbs unwrap, expand, their sweeps  
Shredding the hide of the horror's back  
Skinning the pate of the pitiful beast  
Its fell hanging in folds and tatters.  
The lich-beast hunts, the hound-beast runs,  
Coursing Emil, callow reiver,  
Through dank corridors, dangerous ways,  
To a soft corner, its ceiling rent  
Where clean sunbeams reclaim a space  
A memory brought from a brighter time  
And a holier world. The hound rash-marred  
Pursues Emil to the seige of hope,  
Checks in the light, its chase leaving  
For a far memory of a master's home  
Of a family life; by love heart-stirred  
It sidles away. Sword-fettled maid  
Sigrun, puzzled, observes a cat  
Wandering the hall, a wounded queen,  
Her children's hope; the chance mistells  
Quick-wrathed Sigrun, sword-minded wight.  
She calls Emil coward, stupid  
Moggy-fleeing fool. The mother-queen,  
Yare guardian of her young kindle  
The heart touches of the hild-mighty  
Sigrun hearth-ward; she hefts the dam  
Stowing her safe in her stash of reaf  
While cautious wight, canny Emil,  
Her domain checks - but death has come  
With cold drowning to the kittens' lair;  
In the safeless holt a single life,  
One babe alone, weak and bone-chilled,  
To life still clings. Clasped in his arms  
Hend brand-singer, heart-wise Emil  
The drenched catling dries with his hands,  
As the crew return to the team's crawler.  
The kitten cuddles in the cat-tank holt  
But the mother cat, to Mikkel lent,  
Too harsh her wounds for healing skill,  
So Mikkel wise mercy shows her -  
Release from pain and a light crossing  
To her other kits. Emil and Sigrun,  
In tene falling, protest the deed,  
But wise Mikkel, war-fettled healer,  
The grace explains, deploring the need  
But judges frith and freedom best  
For such hurting. The sele kitten:  
Milk and warming and Mikkel's care  
Help her quickly to health and voice;  
Stealing the hearts of the whole friendship  
Of the cat-tank folk. Callow Emil  
His heart-mood dark with the dam's passing,  
And Lalli mage, loyal noita,  
A cairn upbuild for the cat mother  
Honouring her courage. Emil, grieving,  
A movement sees, a meek limping,  
In the dark court; the dog rash-beast  
From the drowned lair has dragged its woe  
To Emil’s feet, enemy and friend,  
A far memory of a merrier time,  
Of a shent home, of shared delight  
With a loved master. Lief-quick Emil  
Mercy dealing to a marred foe  
A single stab with precise knife  
Releases his comrade from the lich-death curse.


End file.
